Vue 5 Easel by e-on software

Vue 5 Easel by e-on software is not only an entry level program
in their line of Vue 5 products, Vue 5 Esprit, Vue 5 Pro Studio, and Vue 5 Infinite, but also an entry level application. It
is a great program to try your hand at 3D applications that doesn't
necessarily demand a lot of knowledge. The amount you experiment
with this program is up to you. I have been using e-on's other Vue
programs for a number of years now and was pleasantly surprised to
see how much of the core program actually appeared in Vue 5 Easel. One can definitely use the program to build
landscapes that are simple or complex. Vue 5 Easel has a lot of the
same presets, as the other Vue 5 programs, but fewer options. I
believe for the person entering the world of 3D this is much easier
and a better learning tool. When I first started using Vue 5 Easel,
I had no idea how far I could take it. I decided to see how
creative I could be and found that it offered more options, choices
for creativity, flexibility, etc. than what one might think
available in the beginning. What can one do with Vue 5 Easel?

One can initially work with presets and modify them.

One can build great landscapes.

One can fill them with plants.

One can fill them with rocks and water.

One can create sunny, foggy, and stormy atmospheres and use a
variety of lights.

One can import Poser figures and other objects.

One can create Alpha Planes.

One can add titles to work. Also, e-on has provided 17 presets
which can be modified.

One can build landscapes from scratch just by using the tools in
Vue 5 Easel. This landscape is not complicated and did not take me
long.

I made use of the create water plane, create terrain plane, and use
Quadratic and regular spotlights. I could have used two regular
spotlights instead of a Quadratic one. Unfortunately, manipulating
lights is clumsy in Vue 5 Easel because it is hard to face them in
the correct direction. One can line them up using the numerics
panel, which is the right one in the screen capture below. They can
be positioned; it just takes longer than it does in Vue 5 Infinite,
for example.

The same plants come with Vue 5 Esprit as they do with Vue 5 Easel.
The size of these plants can be modified on the screen like any
other object, but they cannot be modified themselves as they can
with the Botannica module, or in Vue 5 Pro Studio, or in Vue 5
Infinite.

One can assign water to a water plane or to a terrain plane to give
it a non-flat surface. One can customize the terrain.

by flattening it and, then, by double clicking on it to bring up
the Terrain Editor. In the Terrain Editor, one can choose the Dig
and Raise options to add bumps, which can turn into swells and
create channel in the lower parts. The swells could have been even
more exaggerated.

There is a tremendous amount of materials available for creativity
and experimentation in Vue 5 Easel. One can create all types of
atmosphere by loading different atmospheres of which there are over
a 100, including those with Global Illumination, natural sunsets,
starts, etc., or one can change any of these using the Atmosphere
Editor. The two scenes below were changed by loading different
skies and by changing some of the colors using the Atmosphere
Editor.

I imported different combinations of Poser 5 and 6 figures. One
aspect that is import is that even if the import or load Poser path
states 5 and 6, make sure you choose the path for the particular
version. If it doesn't come up automatically, it can be found under
"Options." I imported hair that I had created in the Hair room (on
skull caps not follicle sets.). I, also, imported transmapped hair,
and "dynamic" hair from Poser 5 and strand hair from Poser 6 as
well as dynamic clothing from Poser 6. Below is transmapped hair on
a default Jessi.

I found in Poser 5 that I could import the hair that came with the
program. While labeled as dynamic hair, it is not built as strand
based hair and so it would import. In addition, conforming clothes
are necessary.

Strand based hair and dynamic clothing disappeared when imported. I
contacted e-on software and they stated that they are working to
fix this problem. To check on my models, I loaded all the models
into Vue 5 Infinite and all the hair and the dynamic dress were OK.
If you have specific concerns with Poser character, download the
Vue 5 Easel trial version. The sailboat in the scenes
above was created from a piece of one of my photographs using an
Alpha Plane.

Even though I stated that lights were a little clumsy to use, there
is still a lot that can be done with them. Notice how a spot light
brightens up the boat and makes it appear sharper. However, it also
does spread to the surrounding areas, which in this case was fine.
There are three light setting Standard, Global Ambience, and Global
Illumination.

The power of spotlights, for example, can be changed as can its
falloff, its softness, spread, and color. Each type of light: Point
Light, Quadratic Point Light, Spot Light, Quadratic Spot Light, and
Directional Light all have different properties that can be
controlled. The changes that the additional Spot light makes, is
not as noticeable in the screen captures as it was in the original
images.

Text in Vue 5 Easel is composed of Preset Styles as well as factors
that one is able to control such as size of letters, type, and
spacing.

I placed the programs name on a starry night background Load
Atmosphere>Others>Outer Space. To have it covering the
whole viewport, I deleted the ground plane.

Vue 5 Easel also has a limited animation component. In their
feature list, while they list a number of
animation features, if you read it, it shows they are limited. I
did a small animation of a boat moving as seen from an Island using
the Animation Wizard and a path and it worked although it was not
that interesting, but I am not very creative with animations
anyway. I saved it as an avi file and it played very well. Other
than the two areas I criticized above, Poser importation of dynamic
hair and clothes and lights, my only other criticism was that there
was only one level of undo. For novices, especially, I feel there
should be more. I was very pleasantly surprised with Vue 5 Easel.
Using Vue 5 Infinite all the time, I thought that there would be
little I could do creatively in Vue 5 Easel. I was very wrong. Even
though the tools and options are pared down compared to Vue 5
Esprit, Vue 5 Studio Pro, and Vue 5 Infinite, it did not hinder my
creativity. I found that I looked at some of the basic elements and
found I could use them to create very satisfactory landscapes. The
ones I have created for this review are basically quick ones to try
out the different features. If you are new to 3D and want to learn
some basics while having fun and seeing immediate results, this
program is excellent. If you are familiar with 3D but have never
worked with a landscape program, this one is a good choice.

A complete list of pricing can be found on the e-on
software site. I have, also, written a number of tutorials on
using Vue 5 Easel and will keep adding to the group. They can be
found under Vue 5 Easel.

The Paula Sander's Report is a regular
Renderosity Front Page featured column, where Paula investigates
and comments on graphic software, techniques, and other relevant
material through her reviews, tutorials, and general articles.

Article Comments

jjean21 ()
posted at 12:00AM Mon, 23 January 2006

I received Vue 5 Easle for Christmas and have found it to be very easy to use but I still had a lot of questions about its capabilities and how to get the results I was looking for. This review is very straight forward and gave me a much better overview on what it can actually do than the manual that came with it. I also appreciate the tutorial which will help me in learning, and hopefully mastering, this program much sooner than later.

SndCastie ()
posted at 12:00AM Mon, 23 January 2006

Thank you Paula a very interesting and informative article. SndCastie

xoconostle ()
posted at 12:00AM Tue, 24 January 2006

Great job Paula! There seems to be a lot of confusion regarding Easel's features. I'm sure your review will help people who are curious.

JOELGLAINE ()
posted at 12:00AM Thu, 26 January 2006

You forgot that if you do not uncompress the Poser 6 figures from OBZ file format to OBJ format you CANNOT import them into Vue 5 Easel. I ran afoul of that the first time I tried to import James into a scene and he was not there. It took the E-on staff three days to figure out what was going on.

Paula Sanders ()
posted at 12:00AM Fri, 27 January 2006

Joelglaine - You can import the Poser files as pz3 files. I would not suggest importing a compressed file into another program anyway unless it was a more universal format like a jpg. I have compression turned off in Poser 6 so I do not generate any obz or other compressed files